Donald Trump’s lead grew by 8 points over his nearest competitor over the last month, according to a new national poll.
The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows Trump in first with the support of 33 percent of those surveyed, followed by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at 20 percent, a 13-point lead. Just a month earlier, Trump had a 5-point lead when he got 27 percent and Cruz got 22 percent.
While Trump is in the lead when all the candidates are mixed in, the poll said Cruz would beat Trump by 8 points in a hypothetical one-on-one matchup.
The new poll shows Florida Sen. Marco Rubio winning 13 percent, and Ben Carson at 12 percent. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tied with 5 percent, and no other candidate garnered more than 3 percent.
The poll’s release hours before the next GOP presidential debate also appears to show a striking increase in the number of Republicans who would support Trump. Approximately 65 percent of GOP respondents say they would support Trump in the new poll, as compared to just 23 percent of those surveyed in March 2015.
The NBC/WSJ poll surveyed 400 Republican primary voters with a 4.9 percentage point margin of error. Public Opinion Strategies and Hart Research Associates conducted the survey from Jan. 9-13.
